Yoma 79 - 85

by Rabbi Moshe Newman

“Whoever eats and drinks on the ninth (of Tishrei) is considered to have fasted both on the ninth and on the tenth (Yom Kippur).”

Chiya bar Rav from Difti is quoted as teaching this mitzvah to eat and drink on the day before Yom Kippur besides the mitzvah of fasting on Yom Kippur. He derives it from a verse in Vayikra 23:32, which in a simple reading states that we should fast on the ninth of the month, but we know from other verses that the fast of Yom Kippur is actually on the tenth. He explains in a beraita on our daf that this fasting (‘inui’ in Hebrew, lit. ‘afflict’) on the ninth is actual a command to eat and drink on the ninth so that we will be prepared to fast properly on the next day of Yom Kippur.

Yoma 81b

“Eretz Yisrael is not lacking anything, as it is written in the Torah ‘A Land in which nothing is lacking; everything is in it’ (Deut. 8:9).”

Our gemara cites this beraita to show that even pepper spice is considered ‘food’ and one who eats it on Yom Kippur is subject to karet as is the halacha with other ‘normal’ food or drink. This seems to be a refutation of a statement made by Rava on our daf, and the gemara subsequently resolves Rava’s statement and the beraita in a way in which they do not conflict. As an aside, we see from this gemara and from the Torah’s verse that the Land of Israel is not lacking anything – we just need to know how to find it.

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